Thursday’s Campaign Round-Up, 7.10.14

Today’s installment of campaign-related news items that won’t necessarily generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers:

* Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) may still be the vice chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, but he’s “stopped participating” when it comes to helping lead the campaign operation, citing the misjudgments of “Washington insiders.”

* In New Hampshire, the new WMUR/Granite State Poll shows incumbent Sen Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) leading former Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) by 12 points. In April, the same poll found Shaheen up by six, suggesting the race is moving even more in her direction.

* The Koch-financed Americans for Prosperity is launching two new attack campaigns, and they’re not cheap: $940,000 in Louisiana to go after Sen. Mary Landrieu (D) and $920,000 in Arkansas to target Sen. Mark Pryor (D). The expenditures “constitute one of AFP’s largest single investments in the 2014 midterm elections.”

* It wasn’t just in January: “Iowa Republican U.S. Senate candidate Joni Ernst waded back into controversial waters in June when, during a conversation with a conservative radio host, she again discussed impeaching President Barack Obama.”

* President Obama attended a fundraiser in Colorado last night in support of Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.), but the senator himself did not attend. Udall was originally supposed to be there, but cited commitments on Capitol Hill to explain his absence.

* In Missouri, remember when former Rep. Todd Akin (R) said he was sorry for his “legitimate rape” comments in his Senate campaign? Well, forget it: “Two years after the Missouri Republican’s comments on rape, pregnancy and abortion doomed his campaign and fueled a ‘war on women’ message that carried Democrats to victory in the Senate, one of the few regrets he mentions in a new book is the decision to air a campaign ad apologizing for his remarks.”

* Who’ll win the Senate majority after this year’s midterms? Nate Cohn has a good piece on the available data: “With four months to go until this year’s midterm elections, perhaps the only thing clear about the fight for the Senate is that it will pose challenges to public polling.”

* The annual Netroots Nation conference will get underway next week, and we learned yesterday that Vice President Biden will be the keynote speaker.